June 5, 2008

Instilling Value to the Only Valuable Person

Who is that person? Everyone reading this is probably thinking the same answer.

Well actually this time I’m referring to someone else. The Boss.

Did it ever occur to you that your boss doesn’t understand the value of changing the way the business operates? I’m not denigrating the boss. She’s a smart cookie, but she may not get your marketing speak and where it adds to the business. It doesn’t matter how far up the chain you go. At some point marketers have bosses that don’t fully comprehend what they mean or don’t agree with the importance. And us marketers don’t fully understand their responsibilities and vision either. It’s a good system for checks and balances, but it can be a rocky road for implementing change.

Before you can make any real changes to give value to the customer, you have to infer that value (and the value to the bottom line) to your boss. This is where us marketers need to take notice of sales and how they operate. We have to be able to sell the value of marketing over and over and over. And more importantly, sell the value of measuring our performance. You may be thinking that any boss would be out of their mind to not want to measure results. Measurement takes focus and work. And it’s a hell of a lot easier to just coast and assume that your work is having a positive effect.

That’s for the birds.

Good marketers analyze, criticize, dissect and rip apart their own work at every turn. They treat their work like a punching bag on purpose. And they aren’t afraid to fail. They embrace it, knowing that tomorrow they’ll be better off; and so will the company.

At the end of the day, if you’re running into walls, you may want a sales plan for your marketing plan.